disturbing the comfortable

[sophiaserpentia]

Stuff White People Like

Oh, this new blog ruffles the feathers in all kinds of ways. It's brilliant. The comments on each post are proof that it's working. Yes, the criticism that this really mainly applies to yuppies is true, but since they are dominating a lot of the urban cultural dialogue it's still funny and informative to observe the squirming.

Recycling is a part of a larger theme of stuff white people like: saving the earth without having to do that much.

Recycling is fantastic! You can still buy all the stuff you like (bottled water, beer, wine, organic iced tea, and cans of all varieties) and then when you’re done you just put it in a DIFFERENT bin than where you would throw your other garbage. And boom! Environment saved! Everyone feels great, it’s so easy!

... If you are in a situation where a white person produces an empty bottle, watch their actions. They will first say “where’s the recycling?” If you say “we don’t recycle,” prepare for some awkwardness. They will make a move to throw the bottle away, they will hesitate, and then ultimately throw the bottle away. But after they return look in their eyes. All they can see is the bottle lasting forever in a landfill, trapping small animals. It will eat at them for days.

Comments

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that so many people feel they need to emphasize that it's about "yuppies" or "upper-middle class culture" or that they are in some way or another a person of color...

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

But it IS. We can argue about specifically what subsection we're talking about, how it's defined economically or geographically or politically, but it's still a subsection. I'm certainly not saying there's no such thing as "white culture," but that site's picked a very specific liberal guilt-ridden slice of it to generalize as the whole. And I belong to that subsection. My rural, conservative, all-white hometown does not - most people reading it from there would be laughing at "them," not "us."

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I think this focus is by design. Urban white liberals are probably, truth be told, better equipped to examine their... our... own privilege than other white people. But they've... no, we've... also established an elaborate set of self-blinding strategies that get us close to this self-examination but yet still avoiding the hardest yet most necessary parts of it.